Resource-based early intervention with multicultural deaf/hard of hearing infants, toddlers and their families

This study examined the critical community resources and social supports of ten inner city, African American and Latino families with deaf/hard of hearing young children ages 6 years and below. The children attend their local public school program for deaf/hard of hearing students and are enrolled in a community-based multi-service agency for deaf/hard of hearing youth and their families. In identifying and evaluating these families' past and current resource supports, it was this study's primary objective to gain participants' input to inform program development. The research design was of a naturalistic-ethnographic orientation in combination with a collective case-study research approach. The process involved a semi-structured interview format that included community resource and temporal mapping measures to both identify and evaluate the resources that these families used in the past and present. It also addressed what they considered is still missing from their community support system.; A qualitative methodology was used to analyze the participants' responses. Through source triangulation and an idiosyncratic analysis examining first the unique themes within each case, followed by a cross-case analysis, the researcher was able to determine the larger and more global themes shared across cases. These themes then became the basis of recommendations to be incorporated into the community-based agency's program development planning.; Findings from the present study indicated that the most helpful resources and supports to the families were those that provided “service with heart”; were both child and family-centered in approach and content of services; and satisfied the most basic needs of the family first in order to allow the family the time and energy to follow through on prescribed early intervention plans. Once family needs were met, emphasis was on inclusion of the family in child development activities and programming. Raising awareness, acceptance, and accommodation to deafness/hearing loss in the family's cultural and geographical community were also areas of critical need that parents felt strongly about, which were not yet met by resources or supports around them.; The findings clearly reinforced the current trend of family-centered support in early intervention practice of recognizing the child as a member of the family unit. Recognizing family strengths and assets upon which to expand, coupled with addressing the family needs as the parent defined them significantly enabled, empowered, and strengthened overall family functioning and the sense of competency a parent had especially when they addressed the unique needs of their deaf/hard of hearing child.